Eleven new Volvo hybrid buses for Brighton & Hove in the UK

Under Secretary of State for Transport, Norman Baker, attended the official Volvo Bus handover. He was greeted by Managing Director of Brighton & Hove, Roger French, and Volvo Bus Regional Bus Sales Manager, Phil Fletcher.

“Our new buses will be running on two of our busiest routes,” explained Roger French. “The hybrid vehicles are purpose built to be environmentally friendly and we look forward to assessing their performance in operation.”

“The Volvo chassis is robust and has proven to be very efficient in the past,” said Engineering Director, Adrian Mitchell. “Added to the chassis is the Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 2 bodywork, which is stylish, well put together and gives a real quality to the new vehicles.”

Brighton & Hove now have a total of 54 Volvo Wrights double deck buses, with the eleven new vehicles joining 41 Volvo B9TLs and 2 B5LH Hybrids already in operation on the south coast. The new vehicles have been part funded by the Government’s Green Bus Fund.

Volvo’s B5LH features the proven parallel drive system, combining a 4.8 litre diesel engine with an electric motor, which can be used independently or in combination in any proportion as demanded by the vehicle control system. The innovative electric motor also functions as a generator to recover energy from braking and store it in a battery which in turn will power the electric motor.

“Brighton & Hove are an operator that is looking towards the future with greener solutions on their new vehicles,” explained Phil Fletcher. “We’ve sold B9TLs into them in the past, but on this occasion they were keen to invest in hybrid technology and see how the vehicles performed on two of their busiest routes.”

Phil Owen, Volvo Bus Sales Director commented, “Working in continued partnership with the Wright Group, we have been able to meet Brighton & Hove’s requirements for environmentally friendly, fuel efficient buses for use on two of the operator’s key routes.”